[Mb-civic] Feingold Pins Gonzales

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

Published on Monday, February 6, 2006 by the Madison Capital Times 
(Wisconsin)
Feingold Pins Gonzales
Editorial
 http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0206-29.htm

When the Senate Judiciary Committee begins the most important 
oversight hearing in recent congressional history this week, Wisconsin 
Democrat Russ Feingold will go after Attorney General Alberto 
Gonzales for what appears to be a deliberate deception of the 
committee and Congress.

This is not a political game. This is not posturing to score ideological or 
intellectual points.

By every measure, Feingold has the goods on Gonzales.

In advance of the Judiciary Committee hearings on President Bush's 
authorization of the warrantless wiretapping of the telephones of 
Americans, Feingold sent a letter to Gonzales asking that the attorney 
general prepare to explain why, during his confirmation hearings in 
January 2005, he responded by saying "it's not the policy or the 
agenda of this president to authorize actions that would be in 
contravention of our criminal statutes" - a statement that appears to 
have been a lie.

Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales testifies during his 
confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in January 2005.

In his letter, Feingold recalls an exchange during the confirmation 
hearings in which he specifically asked if Gonzales felt the Bush 
administration had the authority to authorize warrantless wiretaps in 
violation of statutory prohibitions. According to the transcript of the 
exchange, the nominee attempted to avoid answering by dismissing it 
as "hypothetical."

But Feingold did not let Gonzales dodge the question. The senator 
pressed him on the matter until Gonzales finally responded, "Senator, 
this president is not - it's not the policy or the agenda of this president 
to authorize actions that would be in contravention of our criminal 
statutes."

Feingold continued the line of questioning, asking, "Finally, will you 
commit to notify Congress if the president makes this type of decision 
and not wait two years until a memo is leaked about it?"

Gonzales answered: "I will commit to advise the Congress as soon as I 
reasonably can, yes, sir."

In his letter to Gonzales, Feingold writes, "In light of recent revelations 
that the president specifically authorized wiretapping of Americans in 
violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and did so years 
prior to your confirmation hearing at a time when you were White 
House counsel, I find this testimony misleading, and deeply troubling. I 
will expect a full explanation at the hearing."

Gonzales is not an honest man, especially with regard to questions of 
abuses of power by the president. So it is a given that he will attempt 
to avoid answering Feingold's questions, and if he is pressed there is 
every reason to believe that he will attempt once more to deceive 
Congress.

But it certainly appears that, this time, the attorney general has been 
caught in his web of lies.

Feingold is right to hold him to account, and the rest of the members of 
the Judiciary Committee need to back up the senator from Wisconsin. 
That goes especially for Republicans on the committee, including 
Chairman Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. Specter deserves credit for 
calling the hearing, which had been billed as an examination of 
"Wartime Executive Power and the NSA's Surveillance Authority" but is 
really an inquiry into this White House's assaults on the Constitution. 
But, knowing what he now knows about past lies to the committee, 
Specter cannot allow this hearing to become another vehicle for 
executive branch spin and deception.

If Gonzales refuses to cooperate with the committee, he should be 
sanctioned. If he is proved to have lied to the committee or to have 
deliberately thwarted its dictates, then appropriate steps should be 
taken to remove Gonzales from a position of public trust that he has 
chosen to abuse.

© 2006 The Capital Times

###


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